Los Angeles County Inspector General (IG) Max Huntsman this week accused Sheriff Alex Villanueva of promoting a “code of silence” around secret societies within his department.
The IG’s report on a deputy group identified as the “Banditos” alleges that roughly 30 members of the clique disrupt day-to-day operations at the East L.A. Sheriff’s Station by creating tension between deputies who are members and those who are not.
“Substantial evidence exists to support the conclusion that the Banditos are gang-like and their influence has resulted in favoritism, sexism, racism and violence,” according to the report, which calls on the LASD to thoroughly investigate all internal criminal allegations and compel statements from witness deputies.
According to the report, tensions between the Banditos and non-members led to an assault on younger deputies by veterans of the department following an East L.A. station party at Kennedy Hall in September 2018. One deputy was allegedly choked and began to lose consciousness, while another required stitches to his lip. A third told investigators that an older deputy threatened his family.
Four deputies were relieved of duty as a result. However, the IG’s report alleges that investigators ignored evidence and neglected to ask tough questions of witnesses to the alleged assault.
Several witnesses interviewed by the IG said the older deputies have ties to the Banditos, who allegedly “used their influence, and sometimes force and violence, to push deputies out of the station for failing to live up to the Banditos’ work ethic,” according to the report.
A civil complaint filed by the deputies who were assaulted says the Banditos are about 90 deputies strong, though some are retired, and all are tattooed with a mustachioed skeleton wearing a sombrero and carrying a pistol and bandolier. About one-third of the group work at the East L.A. station and control it “like inmates running a prison yard,” according to the complaint.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey also took a hit in Huntsman’s report.
“Having received what appears to be a purposefully perfunctory investigation by (the Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau) …, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office did not request statements be taken from the uncooperative witnesses or empanel a grand jury to compel statements,” according to the inspector general.
The county won a recent round when a judge ruled that the sheriff did not have the right to reinstate a deputy terminated over allegations of domestic abuse. The county also recently paid out $1.5 million to its departing CEO Sachi Hamai as a result of threats against her alleged to have been instigated by the sheriff.
